3rd of Saun 720
Demda tore off in pursuit of the head cart that was led by Dimza Nil's dozen camels. As she got closer, another wagon was unhitched, its occupants and provisions abandoned to the wolves and the ravages of the desert. Whatever would happen to those provisions and people they left behind, Demda couldn't be entirely sure, but she guessed it wouldn't be pleasant.
The closer she got to the head cart, the louder the sounds of potted liquor, beer, and wine could be heard rumbling in their cargo. Fewer people were housed in those covered wagons, perhaps by the design of Dimza himself. Besides the alcoholic goods from Rharne were treasures from Korlasir, the sort of treasures that scholars cherished. Literature, books, scrolls, learning materials. All the highest trappings of civilization, and perhaps a few smuggled goods as well that they intended to slip past customs.
She turned her head to look at what was behind the canvas of those wagons, and saw her suspicions confirmed. There were minimal passengers. Dimza Nil was cutting dead weight with those last few caravans.
She caught up to him in time, and glowered behind her mask, once more forgetting that he couldn't see her face beneath the goggles. He tilted his head toward her, and shrugged, then snapped the reins and picked up more speed.
Behind them were some of the wolves, who were yet hungry or else eager for sport. They were still gaining on the caravan, but Dimza made no further moves to disengage the last wagon. Instead, he raised his horn to his lips, and blew several high notes. These were followed by a series of low toots. Before long, Demda could hear hooting and hollering of riders coming in from the north of them, from the flank of the wolves that were in hot pursuit.
The dust cloud behind them, through which the wolves lurked, was then ecclipsed by a large wave of dust riding in from the northeast. The riders made little sound, but Demda squinted, and thought she could recognize Khorog among them. So that was where he had been, while she'd been riding for her life?!
The riders shot their bows at the hunters, doing a ninety degree turn with their wing formation, and heading off to intercept with the caravan. They shot their bows over the shoulder, while the wolves drive onward in pursuit. Hardly any of the arrows found purchase in wolf flesh, but they did have the effect of scaring the beasts off.
Demda decided she would try to fire an arrow, and carefully situated herself on the thorned horse. Then she pulled her recurve bow out of its sleeve, an arrow out of her quiver, nocked, and tookaim.... And the arrow didn't get five feet before it skidded across the ground. Her parthian shot needed work, that much was for sure. And she would be certain to pester Khorog for more lessons later, citing his unavailability during her most desperate moments as emotional blackmail.
The wolves mostly thwarted, or else falling back to partake what they could of their fellows' prey, the camel riders, Khorog, Demda, and Dimza Nil rode on for a few more breaks before slowing to a stop and making camp beneath a stone outcropping. Demda rode right up to the caravan train, and nearly leapt off her horse in a fury. She tripped on the dismount, but regained her balance in after a short pause. Then she ran over to Dimza, and shoved him on the shoulder with her right hand.
"You are crazy! Why did you leave all those provisions behind, and those people to die?!" She demanded to know.
Dimza just rolled his eyes. Khorog wasn't far behind her, and slowly dismounted his camel. Once he was down, he began striding slowly up from behind his ward. Demda continued, "Those people paid you for safe passage, and you abandoned them!"
Dimza disagreed strongly enough that he apparently felt compelled to tell her how he saw things, "Nobody can buy safety, girl. They paid for passage, such as it is."
"Such as it is?!" Demda rushed him, to try and throttle the man, but Khorog held her gently back from the merchant. "How could you say that?"
"By dint that I can still breathe." Dimza sighed, then lifted his hand to his mouth to yawn. "Ahhh, my girl. You will learn simple arithmatic if you continue with us. You will learn that you don't have to pay men who are dead, and once you have their money, you never give it back! I might as well bury a nel for every tear I'd shed over those poor lost rubes." Dimza smiled broadly at his joke, "I'd be poorer than a street rat in no time!"
"But..." Demda stammered, and shook off Khorog's arms, stilling herself from the anger that had arisen only moments before, "What about their families? They have people who care about them surely..."
"If they hadn't the sense to take payment up front so that their loved ones would have compensation, who is really to blame that their families starve?" Dimza shook his head at her. "Such individuals do not improve the breed, you may find, if you meet a good man one day." He rubbed his hands together before the bonfire, and then thoughtfully lifted his head to the sky, "Show me, oh Divine ones, a good man, and I'll show you a pile of dead meat in the making."
Khorog grunted beside Demda, as he listened to Dimza's words. Then the nomad pulled his ward away from the merchant by the wrist, seeing that further discussion wasn't going to be productive.
They built their own fire well away from the merchant wagons. Among the camels and their riders, who were treating their animals to some rations to refuel after their exertions in outrunning the wolves. They didn't use wood to build a fire, but oddly enough to Demda, camel dung. When she saw it, at first Demda thought they were using some form of coal. But sure enough, hardened chunks of dung fell around where the camels were corraled. These were taken to the bonfires, to help chase away the attention of other carrion eaters than wolves.
Demda sat and sulked, pulling off her goggles and taking off the face cloth that wrapped around her head. She took a few sips of her waterskin. When Khorog sat beside her, and extended his own wineskin, she shook her head. She disliked wine ever since...
"No?" Khorog simply asked. Then he shrugged, and took a long swing of his wineskin, wiping off what remained on his wolf-hide sleeve. He turned to Demda once in a while, and then his eyes roved over the camel riders he'd assembled to follow the caravan. How much had he known about what Dimza had done? Was he a party to it? Was this normal behavior for the nomads as well?
Demda turned her head to look back toward Dimza, where he was chatting and laughing with some tribesmen, and a few of his passengers. The latter looked rather relieved to be alive, but not entirely comfortable in the merchant's company, if Demda was a judge.
Khorog followed the woman's eyes, and nodded toward Dimza, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Khagas ni khagas."" He said, simply. Kicking dust into the camel dung-fueled fire.
She heard the words, but obviously didn't understand Vorkelian quite yet. She could barely speak the language she was raised to speak anymore, her native Dehasin. Her eyes lingered on the merchant for only a moment more in hatred, before she gave up any hope of affecting a sense of guilt in the man. Demda's face softened from a glare as she turned away from Dimza, toward her warden. "What? What is Khagas?"
"It mean, in you say, half inside, half outside. He do not know who he with. Half inside, half outside. Khagas ni khagas." Khorog said, and then began sipping more of his wine. He swallowed, and then began biting off a piece of dried meat and bread. A strange sort of meal that these nomads enjoyed, that Demda had affectionately taken to calling a desert 'sandwich'.
Demda gave it some thought, and supposed he was right. A man that was totally morally gray, without a code, without loyalty or any standard of behavior. A blackguard and a scoundrel. But worse than that. A blackguard without conviction. He stood for nothing, and would take anything he can get. Demda took another drink of her water, and a bite of black bread, before lifting her mask and goggles, and sliding underneath her shaded tent. There, she had the first sleep she had in almost an entire trial. They'd been riding for quite a while after leaving the mountains. They'd be within Nashaki's orbit in a few trials now. She kept telling herself that, at least.
